Lando Norris signed a new McLaren contract on 29 August that keeps him at Woking until at least the end of 2030, with options beyond. It will take the reigning world champion to 12 years at a single team. Four days later, his team-mate arrives at Monza seventh in the drivers’ championship on 104 points, 55 behind Norris, without a grand prix win in 2026 — and without one at all for more than a year.
That is the context for the question BBC Sport’s F1 correspondent Andrew Benson has been asked repeatedly this week: what does the Norris deal actually mean for Oscar Piastri?
A four-year answer to a two-year question
The commercial answer is straightforward. Norris has 163 grand prix starts, 13 wins, 18 poles and 48 podiums, and last year became the first McLaren driver since Lewis Hamilton in 2008 to win the world title. Zak Brown described the extension as “extending his commitment with McLaren until at least 2030”; Andrea Stella called Norris “an integral part of McLaren’s journey and success over the last nine years”. The team threw in the MCL39 he won the championship in as a gift.
The subtext is harder for Piastri. He extended his own deal in March 2025 on terms reported to run through 2028 — Benson’s reading is that he is committed to at least the end of 2027 — so he is not going anywhere imminently. But a four-year commitment to one driver, announced in the middle of the other’s worst season, is a statement about hierarchy even if McLaren insist it is not. Piastri could reasonably conclude that McLaren is, and will remain, Norris’s team.
There is also the Verstappen episode. McLaren approached Max Verstappen this summer; had that come off, Piastri would almost certainly have been the driver displaced. Verstappen’s decision to re-sign with Red Bull, on a deal understood to carry performance clauses, removed both the threat to Piastri’s seat and the most obvious escape route from it.
The numbers behind Piastri’s slump
The gap is real but narrower than the points table suggests. Norris leads the intra-team qualifying head-to-head 12-4, yet the average margin across those sessions is 0.071 seconds. That is not a driver being outclassed; it is a driver losing the small margins that decide grid position, then paying for it on Sunday.
Two technical explanations are doing the heavy lifting. The 2026 regulations have changed how energy is deployed, with cars charging the battery down the straights, which has reduced the high-speed corner performance Piastri built his reputation on. Grip levels are lower across the field, and Piastri has been visibly less comfortable in a car that slides. Stella has been consistent in framing this as an adaptation problem rather than a psychological one, and McLaren are applying to Piastri the same technical and driving-style changes that pulled Norris out of an equivalent hole.
Reliability has not helped either. Piastri retired from the Hungarian Grand Prix with a gearbox failure, in a season where Norris has won twice — Hungary and then Zandvoort, where he took pole and won by more than 11 seconds while Piastri came home sixth. Both McLaren and Piastri deny there is tension. Benson’s assessment is that there is some behind the scenes, but that Piastri’s focus is narrower than politics: getting back to the level he knows he has.
Monza, and what happens next
Round 13 starts at 15:00 local time on Sunday 6 September over 53 laps, and the championship picture is not a McLaren one at all:
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) — 242 points, seven wins
- George Russell (Mercedes) — 183
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) — 183, behind Russell on countback
- Lando Norris (McLaren) — 159
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) — 155
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) — 104
Mercedes lead the constructors’ championship on 425 points from Ferrari (338) and McLaren (263) — a startling reversal for a team that won the drivers’ title last year. Antonelli, 59 points clear, will take a full power unit change and start from the back at his home race. Toto Wolff was blunt about the logic: “In theory, our calculations say that it’s the best track to take it. Obviously, algorithms don’t take the nationality into consideration.” Russell is expected to take his penalty in Azerbaijan.
Monza’s long straights make it the cheapest place to serve an engine penalty, and for the same reason a difficult place for McLaren to claw back ground. For Piastri, the target is smaller and more immediate than the championship: out-qualify Norris, finish ahead of him, and start rebuilding the case that the 2030 contract was signed with the wrong driver.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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